RSVP
by Lizard Pie
Summary: Growing up is always difficult, but especially when you don't grow like everyone around you. Luna Girl and Motsuki reflect on life on the outside.


Luna Girl selected the thickest branch of the tree, moved a foot onto it and pressed down to test the sturdiness. With trepidation she stepped off her board completely. She bounced on it a moment and then sat down to check the view. It'd taken four trees, but it was finally perfect. She settled into a deep lounge.

Almost immediately after, Motsuki landed and took the liberty of using her sister's stomach as a pillow. A blanket of moths covered them as they both stretched a bit more to get comfortable.

Luna had stopped counting the years ages ago, but she still remembered that she'd just woken up on Earth. There had to have been something before that. She had to have been born, obviously, to someone who'd had to have raised her from that point. Someone had to have clothed her, someone had to have taught her how to use her tools because those weren't the sorts of skills anyone was born knowing. And then something had to have happened so that she could just… wake up in the city one day.

Maybe there was a reason for it, and maybe not. Just like maybe someone was still looking for her or maybe they weren't. It had been a long time without either one happening.

It would have been nice to say it didn't matter. Between the Earth and the moon, she had plenty of home to be satisfied with. Whatever she wanted or needed was hers for the taking, as long as she was clever about it. And, with Motsuki, she had the companionship she needed.

Maybe at one point she could have said and really believed it, if her belligerent younger self ever would have, but now she couldn't. She had barely begun to push adolescence, and inside the rather large dance hall she watched adults that has used to be peers and friends enjoy a wedding. No masks, no pretentions, and if she'd just been or at least aged like a human...

Motsuki pouted. "Could have invited us."

"No they couldn't."

"Could too!" she huffed. "We like music and lights and cake! Would've been good. too."

"There are adults in there who've seen me before, and they wouldn't get why I'm not an adult. They definitely won't get you being a giant talking bug." Luna shrugged. "There's no way we'd get to eat and dance and all."

At a glum moth squeak, she nudged Motsuki's shoulder. "Come on, we can put music on back at the Fortress. Have some food for our own party. Moon parties are way better than this dumb Earth one."

"It's not the same though."

"I know."

After a while of thought, Motsuki's tilted her head up look up at her sister. "Want to go steal the presents?"

"Nah. I bet it's all socks and, um…"

"What else do adults like?" She pressed

Luna tsked and focused on the party. "Doesn't matter, it's all boring anyway."

"Well then let's steal the cake," Motsuki offered more eagerly. "We could make a big show. Might be fun."

"Might be."

Neither of them made a move to get up, nor did the moths so much as twitch their wings.

They'd done the villain thing until it got boring. Then they tried their hand at the hero thing, and that'd been interesting for a while. But then everyone started growing up, moving on or just moving, and there was no fun chasing or being chased if you were alone.

The pair spent more and more time in the Lunar Fortress as the years went on. There was no time limit up there, and being to themselves was easier up there than in a city full of people.

Motsuki's antenna twitched, and turned sharply towards the building. "Someone's coming."

Luna quickly palmed the glowing ends of the antenna, and made sure the crystal was blocked from view. The glisten off her hair was bad enough when she wanted to hide, they didn't need to add luminescence.

An adult, the groom who should have been enjoying his party, came outside with a plastic bag loaded with takeout boxes. He scanned the tree line around the building, and smiled in their general direction, as he put the bag down on an empty table.

"Hey," he called. "Sorry we couldn't make it work… I'll make it up to you next time, alright?" He pointed to the bags. "Got you extra cake though!"

They all took extra time to make sure nobody was around to hear before the girls responded with "thanks". Motsuki shrugged a moth off her shoulder. In a blink the swarm had taken off and descended on the food.

Who had been Gecko, but was now strictly Greg, stepped back to let them. He waved up to the tree once the bag has been collected. "I'll see you soon, ok?"

There was a blast of music as he re-entered the building, and then silence. Through the window, the party guests happily greeted Greg and brought him back to the dance floor. And after this they would head off to more places that Luna couldn't go, to do things that they wouldn't explain but insisted she would do "some day". But by then, would they all have moved onto something else?

Motsuki dug through the bag to see what they'd gotten. She looked up to claim dibs on the cake slice with the gum-paste flower on it, but stopped when she saw how intensely Luna stared at the party.

She gave Luna a firm nudge. "Moon party will be super fun with all this food."

Luna blinked back to reality. "Oh… yeah. Yeah, it will. Let's get home, okay?"

Motsuki smiled and quickly opened a portal to take them back to the Lunar Fortress. The sooner they were back home, where things weren't different, the better off they'd be.


End file.
